peace, converse -- commerce, -- america should stop acting as the world's policeman. i do believe in a strong national defense, but the optimum board is defense, not offense. we do not have the money to continue the wars. our money could be more wisely spent here at home. >> todd akin. >> it is important to have a foreign policy to start with. you have to have some basic principles, the guidelines. that needs to an acute -- including iraq, afghanistan, a whole lot of other countries as well. the problem is we have not had that. what it seems like the vacillating policies we have almost punished our friends and helped our enemies. we decided to turn our backs on two of our allies, the czech republic and poland. we had plans to build missile defense. we gave that is a concession to russia. how much has russia helped us with iran? how much has russia helped us with the situation in afghanistan? giving special attention to chavez and turning our back on netanyahu when he wanted to meet with the president, the sending of mixed signals is very destructive to foreign policy.